Syria: rebel capture of airbase is 'important morale boost'

Syrian rebel soldiers displayed prisoners, helicopters and tanks they said
they captured when they seized an air-base in the north of the country, a
significant blow to President Bashar al-Assad as his territory slowly
crumbles.

By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent

3:16PM GMT 11 Jan 2013

Four rebel brigades finally over-ran the Taftanaz base, in Idlib province south-west of Aleppo, on Friday after a siege lasting four months. Captured soldiers gathered together to give statements to rebel video-makers said the base leaders had escaped, leaving conscripts behind in the last days of the battle.

Outside, shaky footage claimed to be of the base showed rows of helicopters, in itself a significant loss to the regime which has increasingly relied on air power to hold off rebel advances. They had used jet strikes on the base itself, after the rebels seized half of it earlier in the week, in a desperate attempt to fight off the attack.

"The air-base has been liberated completely, and this is in reality the scene of the battle," one fighter is filmed saying, in front of a helicopter and a tank. "These are the destroyed tanks, and these are the machine guns with my mujahideen brothers standing behind. The buildings are all liberated."

Taftanaz had become a focal point for a new phase in the war, following the stalemate in both Aleppo and Damascus, where major rebel advances in July have slowed. With large rural areas in the north in rebel hands, they are now trying to take out the remaining military bases, which the regime is using to launch aerial bombardments, and to seize main roads still under army control.

Taftanaz is one of the biggest bases taken so far, and was attacked repeatedly but unsuccessfully from October on. Its capture leaves Aleppo and Idlib cities all but surrounded.

The battle also marked the dominance of Islamist forces in the front line. The attack was led by two militant brigades, Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra.

In the video showing the captives, one man, who appears to be the senior officer, says: "Some officers, including myself, were thrown in prison while the battle was taking place. Before the fall of the airport, they (the leaders) took an aircraft and ran away leaving the airport troops behind."

The men appear to be Sunni, while their captors suggest those who fled were Alawite.

The fall of the base marks further slow progress towards a rebel conquest of the north of the country, but will have little effect on Mr Assad's defence of his capital and loyalist Alawite areas. Diplomatic progress also appears to have stalled.

A meeting between Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN envoy, and American and Russian negotiators in Geneva made no advance. Mr Brahimi said no solution was "round the corner".

On Thursday, the Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, met President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt, who is also attempting to put together a forum for negotiations. Mr Morsi is offering Iran the chance of improved relations with Egypt, after 30 years of hostility, if Tehran drops its unequivocal support for Mr Assad, but neither side gave any indication of progress afterwards.